A friend of mine posted the online question, “Where is your favorite place to meet God for conversation these days?” The photo accompanying the question is a gorgeous shot of a trail through the woods. Snow lines the path, the winter sun shines through the bare branches.
Looks like a splendid place for a conversation. I do love walking in the woods as a place for that sacred conversation. When the tree canopy is dense enough, even a little rain doesn’t hamper the walk or the conversation. Along a running stream, where the water chortles over stones and shushes away my errant thoughts, these are ideal spots for conversation with God.
God comes to me when I’m at home, most often as I’m sitting on the ground, pulling up what God has planted. God plants many more in “my garden” than I ever do. I can fall back into a compulsion for order, straight lines and mulched paths, orderly flowers and plants standing at attention. God’s garden is one of outrageous extravagant abundance. Any spot of open soil, God quickly fills in with growth. The perennials I have planted are just budding green now, but some of the ground cover God planted has leaves up and producing oxygen already.
God and I commonly have conversations while I pull weeds impose my own sense of order onto God’s creation plan that looks so much like chaos to the unobservant.
When the weather is too bad to be outside, I get to take advantage of the Church Nerds’ best job perk. I work in a building that has its own sanctuary. Stained glass, tall ceilings to inspire awe, a century and a half of prayers still whispering their way around the room. Sometimes in the middle of the week, I just slip out of my study, into the dark and quiet sanctuary for a little chat. No matter how troubled or anxious I am, a few minutes there always brings me to a place of calm assurance.
Where is your special place? Where for you is that location where you and God can have that conversation?
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